Social worker struck off for marrying convicted murderer

A SOCIAL worker who married a convicted murderer while he was on home leave from prison has been struck off.

Lynne Stevens, from Prestonpans, East Lothian, was Robert Eadie’s social worker on and off for six years while he served his sentence at HMP Edinburgh.

She married Eadie, who tortured and killed a co-worker in 1999, in January this year – just weeks after being suspended by social work chiefs who learned of the romance.

Stevens admitted the eight charges at a hearing with the Scottish Social Services Council

Stevens admitted the eight charges against her at a hearing with the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) in Dundee earlier this month.

They included “entering into a personal relationship with service user AA, who is a life license prisoner with various convictions including those for murder, domestic abuse and a schedule 1 violent offence against a child”.

She also “met up with AA while AA was on home release” and “provided her home address for the purposes of AA’s home leave and as AA’s release address”.

Admittance

Stevens finally admitted that on December 2014, she “married AA”.

Eadie, who is ten years younger than his wife, was convicted of murdering security guard colleague James Airlie, 47, after he suspected the disabled dad of “grassing him up” to his bosses over a driving charge.

The thug, from Edinburgh, and accomplice Peter Tatton kicked and stamped on Airlie, slashed him and poured boiling water over his head.

Eadie was sentenced to 16 years in jail, and Tatton, 20, was later convicted of culpable homicide.

The SSSC started investigating the couple’s affair in October after their bizarre romance came to light.

Stevens was suspended for nine months, and said she expected she would be struck off.

Disregard

Speaking at the time, she said: “I can’t practice any longer until July next year and then I’ll be struck off. That’s a done deal. I’m absolutely okay with that.”

At the hearing, a panel decided to remove Stevens from the register and said that her actions constituted a “serious abuse of trust”.

They added that she was “not remorseful” and that she has “not changed her behaviour nor shown a willingness to change”.

They concluded that her behaviour displays a “serious disregard for the Codes of Practice” and is “incompatible with continuing to be a social services worker”.

Earlier this year Stevens defended her marriage to the murderer.

Victim

She said: “It never matters who you are.

“What I believe in life, is that the truth shall always be the truth and the only person that matters to is me. That’s who I am.”

But she admitted their relationship could have an impact on the family of James Airlie.

She said: “I can imagine if I was a victim in that situation that I would never want that person to be released.

“And I would never want that person to be happy. I get that.”

The relationship — which was given Eadie’s family’s blessing — is said to have developed quickly when the pair bumped into each other in a shop in July when Eadie was out of jail on home leave.

Stevens had not been involved with Eadie in a professional capacity “for some considerable period of time,” a prison source reportedly said.